Trifles Essays (811 words) - Trifles, Susan Glaspell,

Trifles Trifles I remember my grandmother Ruby Betts always telling me Dont ever change yourself for nobody, because, in the end, youll get mad because they never changed. In Susan Glaspells 1916 play Trifles a group characters gather in the Midwestern farmhouse of John and Minnie Wright. The characters who gather in the home are investigating the murder of John Wright and examining evidence to convict Minnie Wright. In this play, the plot is used to examine much bigger topic; the examination of the suppression of emotions, individuality and inferiority, and effect that it can have on the female psyche. The first example of Minnies psychological break was when Mr. Hale retells his story and reveals that when he asked to see John Wright that morning, Mrs. Wright only replied, no (Glaspell 1387) in a dull-like manner. She later on went to say Hes dead, in unemotional tone (Glaspell 1387). The second example of Minnies state of mind is when Mr. Hale asks Who did this Mrs. Wright?(Glaspell 1388). Mrs. Wright replies I dont know (Glaspell 1388). This quotation could be interpreted as Minnie Wright finally releasing her anger and not coming to the realization that she killed him. In one part of the play Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters comment on the cleanliness of the farmhouse and how she must not have been happy with her husband. This indicates that if Minnie had been happy in her own life her chores would have reflected her happiness. Susan Glaspell expresses throughout the play that when a woman marries, it is normal for a female to lose her identity. An example of this is the Sheriff says his wife, Mrs. Peters is married to law (Glaspell 1395). This is the common theme in the early 1900s.Women were made to think they should devote their lives fully to their spouse. Mrs. Hale later describes Minnie Wright as Minnie Foster in her younger days. Mrs. Hale describes her as, real sweet and pretty but kind of timid fluttery. How- she did change (Glaspell 1393). Mrs. Hale had seen Minnie Wright change dramatically over the years. Minnie Foster was a petite, vibrant young woman who slowly transformed in a lonely farmers wife due to the lack of social interactions and b eing suffocated by her husband. Later in the play, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discover a bird cage and a badly sewn quilt in the closet of Minnie Wright. They find the birdcage door to be broken and the bird in a box wrapped in a cloth with its neck twisted neck. The bird symbolizes Minnie Wright in her younger years and her only piece of happiness. Oh the immense sadness she must have felt! It is almost as if she had watched her own life being taken from her a second time. Another huge part of Minnie Wright mental decline is the lack of socializing with others. Mrs. Hale says, I couldve come. I stayed away because it werent cheerful- and that why I ought to have come (Glaspell 1392). Mrs. Hale recognizes that Minnie mind was in a destructive state and expresses deep regret in not coming to see her. One could only imagine that if Mrs. Hale had come to visit Minnie Wright, she would not have suppressed her emotions and killed her husband. In Trifles, the play the plot was used to explore a much bigger topic; the suppression of emotions, individuality and inferiority and the effect it has on the female psyche. Minnie Wright had lived her adult life under the rule of John Wright. She went from being a cheerful young woman to a suffocated and isolated housewife, because of John Wrights insecurities. This point is later solidified by Mrs. Peters, It is an awful thing was done in this house that night Mrs. Hale. Killing a man while he slept slipping a rope around his neck that choked the life out of him (Glaspell 1393). Minnie Wright already had so much anger built up from so many suffocating years of marriage, but John Wright killing her bird sent her into a rage. She strangled John Wright in his sleep so that she could overpower him and make him feel the same